Lastly, we narrowed down our results by identifying the stocks that have experienced significant levels of net institutional buying over the current quarter.

Investing can be complicated, especially when so many accounting terms are being used. If any of the terms above don't make sense to you, have no fear. Let's take a look at what each of these metrics mean and why they are important: Cash and cash equivalents exceeding long-term debt: It is always good for a company to have solid holdings of cash and cash equivalents. Cash is the most liquid asset because it can easily be used to pay off debts, taxes, dividends, etc. in a pinch, while other assets like property and inventory take time and/or effort to convert to cash, a concept known as "illiquidity". When a company has more cash than debt, risks to stockholders are lessened because these companies are better prepared to carry their debt and more likely to pay out dividends. Increasing Net Profit Margin: Net profit margin describes how much profit a company keeps for every $1 it generates in revenues. It is calculated as net profits divided by sales and is reported as a percentage. Increased net profit margin is a good thing because it means the company is retaining more earnings and implies that it is in better control of its costs. Trailing twelve months (TTM): TTM is an indication that the calculated data has come from the last twelve months. For example, if data released in July 2045 is "TTM" (ie, P/E TTM or "Trailing P/E"), this means the price and the earning-per-share data comes from the twelve-month period of August 2044 to July 2045.Target Price: Analyst target prices can be very useful guides for investors. The target price is a price level set by analysts that, based on their data and estimates, represents their predictions for that company in the upcoming year. Because analysts often have different opinions, we use the average analyst target price. Although target price is upwardly biased, a steep discount from this number can signal that the company has more value to price in (meaning, the stock price may rise). Institutional Buying: Institutional investors are also known as "big money" investors or managers. They represent big pools of money such as investment banks, pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, endowment funds, etc. When they invest in stocks, they can invest hundreds of thousands of dollars or more at one time.

Regular investors pay attention to what institutional investors do because it is easy enough to assume that the big money managers know what they are doing -- or at the very least know more than the average investor. This is why these investors are also sometimes referred to as "smart money." Note, investors should never blindly trust analysts or institutional investors or anybody else. Use information on institutional investing with other research before making any investing decisions.

Given the data points, do you think these companies will reach their target price? Are institutions making the right moves? Use the list below as a starting-off point for your own analysis. Click on the heat maps to access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas Data sorted in alphabetical order.